Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Baby goats think gravity is a theory that they work hard to disapprove. You'll find them running up walls, over barns and in trees. Life is a goat toy.

Baby sheep on the other hand love to run and dance, but they stay pretty much land-bound. Their mommy's don't approve of them playing with the goat kids from the wrong side of the fence and they do try to do what their mommies say, most of the time. But the gravity-defying tricks of the goat kids catch their attention. Yesterday morning I watched Gypsum, Chalcedony's month-old ewe lamb, try over and over again to run up the west wall of the sheep tent. She kept falling back into a little sheepy pile. She kept it up for a good twenty minutes before wandering off to find a friend to just visit with.

Tonight, little Gift, Nilly's ewe lamb, was running in her pen where she lives with only older sheep. Suddenly, she was on the roof of their shelter. She bawled and hollered and ran down to nurse for a few minutes. That was very scary. Then about ten minutes later, she was back up on the roof, looking over the edge and obviously saying, "Nanny-boo-boo! Look what I can do!" to the baby sheep in the other pen.

I'm having one of those "oh sh.." moments in my life right now. I hope I can get on top of it. With the help of friends and family, I think I can. And I hope Gift doesn't fall of the other side of the shelter or hurt herself with her new game.

About me

As a fiber artist and shepherd, my daily life is full of stories. The joy of helping lambs into this life gets woven into the newest shawl on my loom. Sorrows and hard times are spun away on a drop spindle. Some of the stories make it into print here - and other times, I am so busy just living this life that I can't sit down to write on a computer!